Measuring Community Vulnerability to Natural Disasters in Korea Using the Entropy Method

August 2017 (VOL. 35, NO. 2)

Communities with a high degree of vulnerability to disasters often experience greater impact from disasters. Understanding and identifying the extent of community vulnerability to natural disasters, would provide emergency managers and decision-makers with strategic direction in their efforts to improve local communities’ capacity to natural disasters while reducing the degree of vulnerability and the negative impacts of disasters. This study aims to develop a methodology for constructing a set of indicators for deriving a community vulnerability index (CVI) in terms of social, physical, and natural environmental factors. The degree of community vulnerability to natural disasters is measured at 229 local municipalities in Korea. Shannon’s entropy method is employed to assess the weight of each vulnerability factor in the local communities of Korea. In order to verify the measured CVI, this study also examines the relationship between the aggregated CVI using the entropy method and disaster losses.